Republicans love to tell Democrats to tamp down their rhetoric. Apparently, they do not feel that the same restraint should be necessary for themselves.
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Within the hours and days following activist Charlie Kirk’s murder last month, it became evident that Republicans would try to use the assassination to silence their political opponents. Their strategy is pretty simple: Pretend that there is a massive problem with political violence from the left (which is not something supported by the facts), and then counteract that made-up threat by using the full might of the government to address it.
On the one hand, that means taking concrete actions.For example, Donald Trump has labeled the anti-fascism movement antifa as a “domestic terror organization” and wants to send troops to Portland to fight a handful of people in inflatable costumes.
That move alone shows how half-baked this entire effort is.
According to experts, such as Faiza Patel, senior director for liberty and national security at the Brennan Center for Justice, Trump has “no authority to designate groups as domestic terrorist organizations, as is obvious from the failure to cite any statute or constitutional provision in support of the president’s action.”
Still, even though Trump’s executive order carries as much legal weight as a child’s drawing of a clown (at least until his Supreme Court says otherwise), the administration is using it to clamp down on left-wing organizations that oppose the president, for example by serving as justification to go after groups that fund progressive causes.
But there is a second prong to this strategy: Republicans have been baselessly claiming that random acts of political violence are somehow connected (there is no evidence for this), that they are predominantly carried out by the left (there is also no evidence for this), and that the rhetoric of Democrats is a leading cause for them (as you may have guessed it, there is also no evidence for that).
For example, you often hear Republicans, right-wing media types, and MAGA influencers saying things like “They tried to kill President Trump,” or “That is why they murdered Charlie Kirk.”
But it is an effective strategy for the GOP to try to shut up the president’s critics.
Essentially, whenever a Democrat calls Trump a fascist* or points out that Kirk held some extreme views, they are told to “tone it down” because that kind of rhetoric is contributing to violence.
However, Republicans feel quite differently when it comes to the language they are using.
And that brings us to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), who expressed some interesting thoughts on the upcoming nationwide “No Kings” protests, which are meant to remind Americans that their presidents are not monarchs.
The last “No Kings” demonstrations in June drew an estimated crowd of five million protesters who participated in a total of more than 2,000 events across the country that were overwhelmingly peaceful (there was a fatality at a rally in Utah, where a “peacekeeper” associated with the march opened fire on a man who pointed a rifle at the crowd but instead hit and killed an innocent bystander).
But that didn’t stop Johnson and Emmer from smearing the protestors, who are only affirming one of the founding principles of the United States.
The Speaker on Friday referred to the protests, which are scheduled for October 18, as a “hate America rally” that would attract the “pro-Hamas wing” and the “antifa people.”
Emmer went one step further. With Johnson nodding along, and flanked by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), who was a victim of a politically motivated shooting in 2017, the lawmaker said congressional Democrats are catering to the “terrorist wing” of their party.
Apparently, using grossly incendiary language is ok as long as it comes from Republicans.
Mind you, accusing someone of being a terrorist is not only a very specific and serious charge, it also makes them sound like an imminent threat… the kind of threat that faithful MAGA supporters may want to do something about.
Which brings us to an incident that happened at one of the rallies in June.
At an event in Nashville, an individual reportedly carried a gun and, according to the US Attorney’s office, “told the protestors that he had a firearm, spat at them, yelled at them, and brandished the firearm.”
Now imagine what might happen if someone like that felt that doing more than brandishing the weapon were justified because the people at that really were “terrorists.”
And let’s also not forget that the storming of the Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, i.e., the only act of large-scale, organized political violence in recent memory, was carried out on behalf of Trump.
So maybe Republicans should practice what they preach and stop making baseless accusations.
*We’ll be happy to debate anybody at any time as to whether the “fascism” label is more appropriate for Trump than the “terrorism” label for peaceful protesters.
